15 June 2017•Update: 15 June 2017
By Emin Avundukluoglu
ANKARA
Opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli has strongly condemned the Egyptian president for suggesting that recent restrictions imposed by some Arab countries on Qatar should be extended to Turkey as well.
Last week, five Arab countries -- Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Yemen -- cut off ties with Qatar, accusing Doha of supporting terrorism.
Qatar denied the accusations, calling the moves to diplomatically isolate it as “unjustified”. Ankara has said that it stands with the tiny Gulf state against sanctions and has urged Riyadh to take the lead in finding a solution to the crisis.
The New Arab media outlet on Wednesday reported that Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi called for expanding the blockade of Qatar by including Turkey until Ankara ends its support for Doha.
Responding to Sisi’s reported remarks, Bahceli tweeted: "Turkey is clearly a target country of endless attacks, deep conspiracies, tricks, as well as masked operations.
"The suggestion and call of Egyptian President Sisi is clear. I condemn this coup plotter who said that the same sanctions on Qatar should also be imposed on Turkey."
The MHP leader also slammed the Republican People's Party (CHP) for complaining about Turkey to the west. "Ask for justice by not complaining about Turkey to the West."
He accused the CHP of calling for anarchy and dictatorship in Turkey on the pretext of asking for justice.
About the sentencing of CHP deputy Enis Berberoglu to 25 years in prison, Bahceli told the main opposition party to be patient and be respectful to justice.
He said the CHP still had the option to appeal the decision at the Supreme Court. "The decision of Istanbul’s 14th Heavy Penal Court is not the definitive judgment, and the legal procedures and the way forward have not been closed yet," Bahceli said.
Berberoglu was sent to prison on Wednesday on the charge of making public secret information for political purpose or military espionage.
Istanbul’s 14th Heavy Penal Court handed down the sentence to the CHP deputy over a Turkish newspaper’s coverage of National Intelligence Organization (MIT) trucks getting stopped en route to Syria in January 2014. The MIT trucks had been stopped by gendarmerie in the southern province of Adana, despite a national security law forbidding it from such a search.
